/nzz_tiktok_insta_bot

Primary LanguagePython

TikTok and Instagram-Python-Bot

Here you will find a fully automated TikTok and Instagram bot that we developed for research purposes. There are two variants of the scripts:

  • Swipe through Tiktok and stop when certain hashtags are found.
  • Swipe through Tiktok and stop when the video has more likes than all previous videos. The scripts will create a json with contains User, Likes, Comments, etc and it will export an mp4-video (without sound) from the screen.

In this doc you will find all our experiences, what worked and where we failed.

Our learnings

Emulator, device farm or real device?

We performed our tests on the Android emulator.
Advantage: Reading the data is faster than on a real smartphone.
Disadvantage: Despite root access, changing serial numbers, VPN, etc., TikTok recognized that we were not a real smartphone. Among other things, we did not receive a localized feed (despite imitating the coordinates) and advertisements were not displayed.

We did not use a device farm because they did not allow to log in beforehand (manually). We performed our tests on the Android emulator.

Real devices simulated real users best, which is why we used a real smartphone.

Searching for hashtags

We noticed that TikTok users rarely add hashtags or descriptive descriptions to their videos.

Apple Silicon

For now: If you use an Apple silicon chip and want to test on emulator: Have fun! It works, but you will need perseverance.

Installation

Appium

Install Appium and start the server with the default settings.

  • Host: 0.0.0.0
  • Port: 4723

Android Emulator

This tutorial is for the emulator on a Mac Silicon. If you want to use an emulator, download (as of December 2021) the Canary build.

At the welcome screen, click on the three dots and select AVD Manager or Virtual Device Manager

  • Create Device
  • Pixel 5
  • Choose R (API Level 30) on arm64-v8a (this is important! It must be an arm64-v8a on a mac silicon)
  • Show Advanced Settings
  • Add some more internal storage

Install TikTok: Drag Tiktok-App from the lib-folder and drop it on the emulator.

Real device

Activate developer-Mode on your device:

  • Go to Settings
  • Device information
  • Tab 6 times on the Build-Number
  • Back to settings -> Developer options
  • Activate: UBS-Debugging

Install TikTok:
Install Android Studio. Then get device serial. Open Terminal and write adb devices.
If adb is not found, add the following path to your system:

/Users/[YOURUSER]/Library/Android/sdk/emulator
/Users/[YOURUSER]/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools

If you got the serial number, push Tiktok-APK to device:

adb -s [SERIALNUMBER] install /[PATH_TO_THIS_REPO]/lib/TikTok_v20.9.3_apkpure.com.apk

Install scripts

First, install FFMPEG. Otherwise appiums build-in recorder will stop after 3 minutes.

Install virtual environment and launch it

python3 -m venv env
source env/bin/activate

In the virtual environment, install dependencies

python -r requirements.txt

Our Huawei-Phone does not supports Appium screencast. That why some scripts use scrcpy as screencasting software. Install it:

brew install scrcpy

Config scripts

You need to edit src/settings.py:

users
Holds your TikTok-Users and hashtag, it should stops on.

run_for_seconds
How long the script should run. If you use appiums build-in recorder, do not run it longer than 20 minutes.

avds
Contains your virtual devices (if you use the emulator). Add the Appium-Port and the name of the avd

desired_cap
Stores, how your device is found. You need to edit this.
With real devide:

  • Add: "platformVersion": "[VERSION]"

On emulator:

  • Remove platformVersion
  • In src/main.py and/or src/highscore.py add caps['avd'] = settings.avds[args.avd]['avd'] at around line 25.

data_root
Where the data (videos and json) should be stored.

There may be other options you d'like to change.

Run scripts

There are two essential scripts: main.py (looks for hashtags) and highscore.py (looks for highscores)

Run main.py. In your virtual env, run:

python main.py -user=NAME -platform=tiktok -avd=bot1

Supported platforms: tiktok and instagram

Run highscore.py. In your virtual env run:

python highscore.py -user=NAME -platform=tiktok -port=4723

Supported platforms: tiktok

To split your videos in to buckets of 100mb (for github), use this script:

python cutvideos.py -cut PATH_TO_FOLDER

It will move the original file to the folder zz_original (add it to gitignore).

To merge videos together:

python cutvideos.py -merge PATH_TO_FOLDER

To get screenshots from the videos based on the json-file, run this script:

python exprotframes.py -video PATH_TO_MP4

Root your emulator

If you need to root your emulator ond Mac Silicon, here are some hints. Works only with API 30!

  • Create virtual Device (API 30, Nexus 5)
  • Run it. check if in terminal abd works. If not, add path (see chapter Real Device)
  • Clone or download rootAVD
  • Start rooting. Open Terminal and navigate to rootAVD
cd PATHTO/rootAVD
./rootAVD.sh /Users/[YOUR_USER]/Library/Android/sdk/system-images/android-30/google_apis/arm64-v8a/ramdisk.img

IMPORTANT: Now choose Canary (be fast!)
Now you should have Magisk installed. Start it. If you do not get any Apps in the Magisk Store, ups. Try the following: Download an older Magisk-Version from their website, replace it in the rootAVD-Folder and rund rooting again (but first: Reverse everything! rootAVD.sh reverse)

How to change Device ID?

There is more than one device id, each app gets its own. Download settings_secure.xml from Device:

adb pull /data/system/users/0/settings_ssaid.xml ./settings_ssaid.xml

Change IDs in XML and push it back to the emulator:

adb push ./settings_ssaid.xml /data/system/users/0/settings_ssaid.xml

If you cannot open the xml (because its binary): Switch your emulator API-Version (had the same problem with API 31)

How to imitate an other devide?

  • Install Props.
  • Install Termux (you'll find it in the lib folder)

Now open termux on your emulated phone.

  • Type: su
  • Type: props
  • 1 (Set Fingerprint)
  • Follow instructions and reboot. We've chosen: f -> 26 (Samsung) -> 76

To simulate devide, open props again:

  • choose 3 (simulate device)
  • a (enable all props)
  • 4 (both)
  • Reboot

Make debuggable

While imitating a device, it may be possible, that you can not pull and push files to the device. In that case, make it debuggable again:

  • Open Termux on your device
  • change following props (props name value):
ro.debuggable = 1

Other notes

Inspect emulated device in Appium:

{
  "platformName": "Android"
}

Fake other IDs additional to props

ro.build.characteristics nosdcard
ro.boot.serialno A5830D037F02
persist.adb.wifi.guid ce0b37a3-f6f6-4967-bd41-48fc0e443ea3

Contact

journalist.sh